Latest Cytogenetics Stories

The sight of a researcher sitting at a microscope for hours, painstakingly searching for the right cells, may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to new software created by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany.

Research published on Tuesday states that DNA in a pregnant woman's blood can reliably show whether her fetus has Down's syndrome, which can reduce the need for invasive testing procedures like amniocentesis.

Researchers are a step closer to unraveling the mysteries of human sexual development, following genetic studies that show male mice can be created without a Y chromosome â€“ through the activation of an ancient brain gene.

A team led by a scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has discovered a regulatory protein that influences where genetic material gets swapped between maternal and paternal chromosomes during the process of creating eggs and sperm.

The yellow monkeyflower, an unassuming little plant that lives as both a perennial on the foggy coasts of the Pacific Northwest and a dry-land annual hundreds of miles inland, harbors a significant clue about evolution.

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.